Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Hope Has a Definite Smell

Doesn't everything just smell...different this morning? Doesn't it all LOOK different. Feel...altered? Driving to work, didn't you say to yourself, Wow, I never noticed that before, those trees, how huge they are, how gorgeous, that little house there, the curve of this street, how did I miss that?

Weren't you happy to see other people?

Didn't you think maybe, just maybe, you've over-reacted over the past several years? What were you so angry about all the time? Why did everything piss you off--seem so hopeless--seem so rigged for failure? Why did everybody seem so corrupt and self-involved? Why did that woman say that thing to you that time? Like she hated you. Like she just wanted to inflict pain. Why did you hold onto it for so long? Why did you let her?

The air feels cooler, the car runs more smoothly, your thoughts turn to things that have made you happy in the past or content or at least mildly satisfied or, better still, simply unflappable. What is that? How does that work? Suddenly, with one little adjustment, everything changes, like someone flipped a switch. Your mind shoots tentacles out in all directions, rooting out the things you've stuffed the past several years, all those things you haven't let yourself feel, or couldn't manage to bring yourself to feel. You never thought of yourself as someone who feels a person can make a difference, and now, this morning, you realize, maybe you don't know yourself, and maybe that's an added bonus, because it means you have so much potential. You still have the capacity to surprise yourself. And other people.

Let's hope it's no illusion, and that there really will be a difference.As another site I visit put it:

"Thank God we didn’t elect a figurehead. A symbolic black man. A slogan in a suit. We elected Barack Motherf*cking Obama, people. And as he’s been saying the whole campaign: Chill the f*ck out. He’s got this."